Tulokset osoittavat, että tutkitulla robotiikaa ja pisaran itseasennoitumista hyödyntävällä menetelmällä voidaan luotettavasti kokoonpanna mikrokappaleita. Saavutettu tarkkuus (1-2 µm) on vertailukelpoinen itseorganisoitumista käyttävien menetelmien kanssa.The main objective of this thesis is to experimentally study the effect of different process parameters on the results of a hybrid micro assembly method previously developed at TKK. The hybrid method is a combination of robotic micro handling and droplet self-alignment.

The survey part of the thesis has two sections. The first part gives an overview of the micro world and the state-of-the-art of micro assembly methods including both robotic and self-assembly methods. The second part concentrates on capillary force and its applications in micro handling.

The experimental method, the test set-up and key test parameters are discussed in the second part of the thesis. The key parameters include biases (the initial error in the part location before self-alignment) in three axes, the amount of liquid for self-alignment and the size of the parts. Moreover, the test procedure is described in details.

Several sets of tests were conducted and the results are analyzed carefully in the third, experimental part of the thesis. Especially the success rates and areas of success as a function of different parameters are studied and compared. The accuracy of the final assembly is analyzed by a scanning electron microscope.

The results show that the hybrid micro assembly method is reliable for assembling micro parts. The study on the effects of the process parameters prove that accuracy requirements of the handling robot are very low while the accuracy obtained with the method is in the range of 1-2 µm, comparable with what has been achieved by self-assembly.